No, I don’t think the people making this pronouncement realize that they sound
just like Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies.

Anyway, we do indeed have a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR deficit,... actually $1.089
trillion. ... What the Dr. Evil types think, and want you to think, is that the
big current deficit is a sign that ... a debt crisis is just around the corner,
although they’ve been predicting that for years and it keeps not happening. ...
But more often they use the deficit to argue that we can’t afford ... programs
like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. So it’s important to understand
that this is completely wrong. ...

So, let’s talk about the numbers. The first thing we need to ask is what a
sustainable budget would look like. The answer is that in a growing economy,
budgets don’t have to be balanced to be sustainable. ... Right now, given
reasonable estimates of likely future growth and inflation, we would have a
stable or declining ratio of debt to G.D.P. even if we had a
$400 billion deficit. You ... should take $400 billion off the table right
away.

That still leaves $600 billion or so. What’s that about? It’s the depressed
economy — full stop.

First of all, the weakness of the economy has led directly to lower revenues ...
by at least $450 billion. Meanwhile, the depressed economy has ... temporarily
raised spending ... by at least $150 billion.

Putting all this together, it turns out that the trillion-dollar deficit isn’t a
sign of unsustainable finances at all. ... We do indeed have a big budget
deficit, and other things equal it would be better if the deficit were a lot
smaller. But other things aren’t equal; the deficit is a side-effect of an
economic depression, and the first order of business should be to end that
depression — which means, among other things, leaving the deficit alone for now.

And you should recognize all the hyped-up talk about the deficit for what it is:
yet another disingenuous attempt to scare and bully the body politic into
abandoning programs that shield both poor and middle-class Americans from harm.

No, I don’t think the people making this pronouncement realize that they sound
just like Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies.

Anyway, we do indeed have a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR deficit,... actually $1.089
trillion. ... What the Dr. Evil types think, and want you to think, is that the
big current deficit is a sign that ... a debt crisis is just around the corner,
although they’ve been predicting that for years and it keeps not happening. ...
But more often they use the deficit to argue that we can’t afford ... programs
like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. So it’s important to understand
that this is completely wrong. ...

So, let’s talk about the numbers. The first thing we need to ask is what a
sustainable budget would look like. The answer is that in a growing economy,
budgets don’t have to be balanced to be sustainable. ... Right now, given
reasonable estimates of likely future growth and inflation, we would have a
stable or declining ratio of debt to G.D.P. even if we had a
$400 billion deficit. You ... should take $400 billion off the table right
away.

That still leaves $600 billion or so. What’s that about? It’s the depressed
economy — full stop.

First of all, the weakness of the economy has led directly to lower revenues ...
by at least $450 billion. Meanwhile, the depressed economy has ... temporarily
raised spending ... by at least $150 billion.

Putting all this together, it turns out that the trillion-dollar deficit isn’t a
sign of unsustainable finances at all. ... We do indeed have a big budget
deficit, and other things equal it would be better if the deficit were a lot
smaller. But other things aren’t equal; the deficit is a side-effect of an
economic depression, and the first order of business should be to end that
depression — which means, among other things, leaving the deficit alone for now.

And you should recognize all the hyped-up talk about the deficit for what it is:
yet another disingenuous attempt to scare and bully the body politic into
abandoning programs that shield both poor and middle-class Americans from harm.